- Yearbook.The most important news of 2019 in automotive key
- Mobility: The other green cars: there is life beyond electric cars
Will we buy the car we want or the one we are being forced to? Will the aid return to renovate an increasingly old fleet of vehicles? Will we end up paying for using the roads? Will diesel be expensive? Will Traffic harden the card by points? ... Never before a year started with so many uncertainties and changes around the automotive sector.
Several facts have allied for the birth of this kind of perfect storm. On the one hand, the paralysis of the Government has prevented the approval of new budgets, so that the extension is continued, twice, of the last ones that the PP carried out in 2018. And with that extension, or no measures have been taken , or have had to park most of those announced.
On the other hand, the EU (and the manufacturers) already had 2020 fire marking for the entry into force of the new CO2 emission limits of new cars, which will require an average 95 grams per kilometer, under threat of billionaire fines (95 euros for every gram of excess and vehicle).
Finally, the lack of initiative of the central State has made other Administrations, local and regional, take the lead by adding more confusion.
Market: more diesel and electric
According to Jato Dynamics, only the VW Group would have to pay 9.2 billion euros in fines for breaching the CO2 standard if their 2018 emissions were taken.
To avoid these sanctions or minimize them, alternative vehicles, especially electrified vehicles, will gain more prominence, since all those that emit less than 50 grams count as two. And the brands will have no choice but to promote diesel, which emits less CO2 and should go from "current 27% to 47%," according to the dealership Faconauto . In addition, the more 'toxic' models or versions will disappear or those, in the case of some small utilities, where the profit margin is very small and the cost of meeting the limits, disproportionate.
The SUVs are bad allies in this field, but they will not be very diminished when they are still so demanded and profitable. In addition, we will attend to a simplification of the number of extras that can be ordered with our car , since that (multiplied by hundreds of thousands of cases throughout the EU) can offset some accounts - those of CO2 - that brands will monitor almost daily .
Business logic suggests that the sanctions on brands will end up coming out of the pocket of consumers, in the form of price increases. In addition, the massive entry of vehicles with alternative technologies, always more expensive, will make the average rate rise. On the contrary, diesel models should be cheaper.
In this context, purchase assistance plans are stronger than ever. The Ministry of Ecological Transition has already proposed a plan to boost electric mobility (vehicles and infrastructure), with 200 million annually for five years. It should start in 2020. Although it seems an attempt to kill flies with gunshots, when it would be enough to change old cars for modern ones, whatever their technology, to significantly reduce pollution. For example, a diesel of more than 10 years emits 80% more NOx and 99% more particles than a current one . And, according to the OCU, older vehicles respond to 50% of the pollution despite the fact that they are only 15% of the park.
Traffic: vulnerable, card, exams ...
Pere Navarro already said last fall that, among the many pending measures to be applied by the DGT, they will give priority to the 30 km / h descent of the speed limit on streets with a single direction of movement in order to protect vulnerable users as pedestrians and cyclists; and the regulation of personal mobility vehicles, such as electric scooters, which have already been expelled from sidewalks and may not exceed 25 km / h. In addition, a specific plan will be launched to help reduce the accident rate of motorists.
In 2019, the reform of the points card had to be parked. The idea is to improve the recovery courses, reward the best drivers and reinforce the punishment for those who do not wear the helmet or belt or are distracted by using the mobile, especially for chatting. Speed monitoring will also be reinforced (new radars are expected) and the number of alcohol and drug controls will increase
From the beginning of last year there is a draft on the table to make it more difficult to pass the theoretical test, which can only be attended after receiving a minimum of eight classes on Road Safety. The initiative is under study after digital driving schools denounced the measure, since such training could only be given by conventional ones, and Competition proved them right.
As for the practical test, those who suspend will take longer to appear and will have to take additional classes. By the way, among the examiners it is planned to incorporate agents of the Civil Guard of Traffic in reserve situation. The goal: to end the 300,000 exams without dragging them from the famous strike of these officials.
Vehicles: ITV, used ...
From May of this year, ITV centers will be able to access data on safety elements - such as airbags , belt pretensioners or ESP stability control - in order to be checked electronically. Although manufacturers are only required to provide that information of the cars registered as of May 20, 2018 or later.
In the same way that, in the case of polluting emissions, the new tests that have been carried out since mid-2018 only affect cars registered as of 2011 (Euro 5 and Euro 6). So none of these measures will help end that 20% of vehicles that, on average, circulate without having the ITV in force. And that the DGT knows perfectly.
For a long time, it is possible to ask Traffic for a more or less detailed report on the second-hand vehicle that we want to acquire and check, for example, if it has loads. From this year, and with the support of that body, professionals from the VO sector who wish may start the so-called Maintenance Book. It is a digital and voluntary tool, which Ganvam has promoted and in which data such as the mileage of the vehicles, the revisions that have passed, the repairs to which they have been subjected or the parts that have been changed will be recorded. It is about guaranteeing the traceability of the vehicle to give more transparency to this activity, although still 60% of used transfers are made between individuals. These, by the way, may know the data collected in the tool through the DGT.
Mobility: new restrictions
The fight against traffic pollution will continue with Madrid and Barcelona as strongholds. From the Central Madrid of the old corporation, you will go to Madrid 360 of the current one. While waiting for it to run and harden some traffic conditions, the affected area has been slightly reduced. The new restriction from January 1 focuses on cars without a label, which may not use any parking in the regulated area and, if they are residents, from an area other than that of the owner. It involves petrol cars registered before 2000 and diesel before 2006.
The Low Emissions Zone released a few days ago in Barcelona (see photo above) comprises the area that delimit the different rounds of beltway. It cannot be accessed by vehicles without a label, although it will not be fined until April. Likewise, the Catalan Parliament has approved a tax on vehicles based on the CO2 they emit. It will take effect this year, affects four million cars and is expected to raise 150 million annually.
It is also intended to oblige by law that cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants (145) undertake plans that limit traffic pollution. And we can always continue to find administrations that go free, such as the Balearic Government, which has had to paralyze its project to prohibit the circulation of new diesel cars since 2025 (and the rest of combustion vehicles 10 years later).
Fuel: diesel at the price of gasoline
Almost 40 euros more per year for the average motorist
The so-called 'dieselazo' is an aspiration of the Government of Pedro Sánchez since 2018: eliminate the bonus (about 10 cents per liter) that favors diesel to match its prices with those of gasoline. The idea is to do it progressively and without affecting transport professionals. According to the plans presented to Brussels, a private motorist who made 15,000 kilometers a year would pay 3.30 euros more per month and the gross of the proceeds from this measure at the end of the period would amount to about 2,410 million euros. The Fiscal Responsibility Authority, the body that oversees the accounts, estimates that the measure would contribute to the state coffers 1,318 million euros, 38% less.
Roads: remove tolls and create others
A symbolic payment to finance a maintenance of 1,100 million
The year has started with good news: since January, you no longer have to pay on the AP-4 highways from Seville to Cádiz and AP-7 between Tarragona and Alicante, once your concession period has expired. Since 2018, the AP-1 between Burgos and Ariñón was free and the procedures have been initiated to suppress the tolls on the AP-2 between Zaragoza and El Vendrell and in two other sections of the AP-7 since August 2021. But as' Compensation ', it is being studied to establish the payment for use of the freeways that are now free (and of the freeways) to finance their maintenance, some 1,100 million a year that today leave the taxes. The idea would be to set a symbolic payment of about two cents per kilometer. In Spain there are almost 17,300 kilometers of fast roads. For more than 80% of them you can move freely.
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